Let Your Dreams Take Flight

I am back from down south and visiting with family and am somewhat pleased to be back to slightly warmer weather.  The wind down there was freezing and went straight through you, which didn't help my cough which has come back a bit for the worse.  But I am now warm and comfy in my own home catching up on things, even the stuff I don't enjoy like house work.    

Anyhow this month Altered Pages are teaming up with the Leaky Shed who specialise in chipboard embellishments. And today over on the blog I am sharing a journal page I created using their delightful kites 3 piece pack and lots of products you can buy from Altered Pages.

To see my journal spread in full and all the details of what I used to create it, you will however have to pop over to the Altered Pages Blog here.

I hope you have a day!

Trending Tuesdays - Time Flies Canvas

Hi Everyone!  I hope you are having a great start to your week so far. Today is a Trending Tuesday over at Altered Pages.  Trending Tuesday is where the whole design team takes up the challenge to use a a particular product which is available from the Altered Pages Store to create a project.  It is designed to inspire our readers with various ways to use that particular product.

This months Trending Tuesday Theme was to create a project using a Stencil.  Altered Pages sells a range of stencils from a variety of manufacturers including the Crafter's Workshop and Andy Skinner.

I decided to make a canvas as I love using stencils to create texture and interest on them.

For my background (seen below) I started by layering some torn pieces of paper and sprayed on color with my Dylusions Inks.  I then took some texture paste and my Cubist Stencil from the Crafter's Workshop to add some texture and detail.  Once this was dry I rubbed over the top of the raised texture with some red and yellow Gelatos, stamped some more detail on the background using the Altered Pages Basketweave Art Stamp and added more torn paper and some washi tape.

A close up of my finished background.

I had a large red butterfly from an Altered Pages Collage Sheet which was cut out and left over sitting on my desk and I liked how it complimented the colors of my background so this was my starting point for my finished canvas.  On my desk were a few other bits and pieces left from other projects, such as the pink punched flowers (from the Robin's Nest Sorbet Glitter Papers) and the time flies wording.  I printed out some more butterflies, and on the computer generated the words Make Every Moment Count.  Then using some other paper scraps I punched and die cut out some leaves and grabbed a few of the Robin's Nest Dew Drops and stuck everything down to end up with the finished piece below.

My finished Canvas

I really loved how it turned out my quote is a reminder - something I am trying to do each and every day. My timing for creating this canvas was perfect as I was in need of something to pretty up and girl-ify the spare bedroom this past weekend when we did respite care for a young girl and it did the trick wonderfully.  She loved butterflies and in-fact we made her her very own butterfly canvas to take home after her stay.

Cards in Envy - Anything Goes

Anything Goes is the theme over at Cards in Envy Challenges this fortnight as long as your card is a A2 (4.5" x 5.5") in size.  My card is definitely a mixed media project and a mix of leftovers this fortnight.

I had a few left over bits and pieces from other projects lying around on my desk so I brought them all together with a Gelato Water Color Stamped Background (Chevron like Design) and the main Beauty in All Things stamp (both from Unity) to create my card.

My background was done on a white piece of cardstock and I simply colored the stamp with various colors of my Gelatos from Faber Castel/Design Memory Craft, spritzed with a little water and stamped.  I also stamped the Beauty in All Things stamp on white card with black archival ink and then used my Gelatos and my waterbrush to color in the background and the flowers.

My butterfly was a left over collage image from Altered Pages, my die cut flowers were cut using up the last pieces of some papers I made using paper towel I had been sopping up my art inks and paints with (see my last project).  The punched flower border strips were cut from Robin's Nest Aquamarine Sorbet Glittler Papers, the purple ribbon loop border was punched from another Robin's Nest Paper - Distressed Plum to coordinate with my flowers and colors in the background.  I used a Dew Drop (also from the Robin's Nest) as the flower center for my larger die cut flower.  My leaves were hand cut and die cut using other paper scraps I had on my desk.

Be sure to pop over to the Cards in Envy Blog for more great inspiration and I hope to see you playing along.

Wild About You Canvas with Sin City Stamps and Altered Pages

Hi Everyone!  Wild About You is the title for my post today.......so just what is the You?, you ask.  Well for starters it is the wonderful Wildlife Background Stamp from Sin City Stamps. I just love it!   And secondly it's because its the perfect excuse to give someone this particular piece of art.  I was kinda thinking that if the love of your life isn't into hearts, red and soppy cards for Valentines Day like mine isn't then this canvas (8 x 8) may be the perfect way to tell your partner you are "Wild about them" and you get to have some messy fun creating it.

Supplies Used:

Altered Pages:  Gelatos, Glitz Unchartered Waters Papers, Glitz Decorative Tape, Dylusions Spray Inks, Acrylic Paint, Stencils for layering color on background, Gesso, Gel Medium, Waterbrush,  Sin City Stamps:Wildlife Background Stamp

For my background (the messy fun part) I simply layered color using all (and I mean all) the paint and color supplies I have listed above from Altered Pages with various stencils to add depth and interest to the background.  Once I was happy with this I then turned to preparing my main image.

The Wildlife Background Stamp was stamped twice with black ink.  The first image I colored the background with Gelatos and Water Color Pencils.  The second image I fussy cut out the elephant, giraffe and zebra, adding only color to where the background met the animal.  I then cut out my colored background forming a rectangle panel and then mounted my fussy cut animals on foam dots to this.

Taking a matting piece of paper cut to size so that it will frame my image once on the canvas.  I adhered this to my canvas and then using my Gelatos to blur the edges I continued to try and blend in this paper by stamping with Green Ink a leaf stamp across my entire background.  I also add this point added further green by way of a circle stencil and a Green Gelato.

Now happy with my background.  I added my main image to the centre of the canvas and my two strips of decorative tape above and below the image and its mat.  I then took some Gesso and the same leaf stamp and framed my image with leaves.  A smidge of yellow and green gelato added a touch of color to them further.

To finish my canvas I now simply took the same decorative tape and ran it round the sides of my canvas.

I am really happy with how this turned out and I am now already thinking of ways to incorporate this wonderful stamp from Sin City Stamps into more of my art.  So stay tuned.

Wk 2 Journaling

Hi Everyone!  Today I am sharing some of my art journaling.  And not to worry I am not sharing any of my heavy emotional stuff.   As well as Journal 52 I am now playing along with the Art Journal Caravan for 2014 which is also a year long workshop.  The years theme is Not all those who Wander are Lost and January is all about having Nature as your Muse.  Nature truly is a wonderful inspiration for my art so I couldn't resist joining the fun.  Plus it combines my two loves, art and using the computer.

For both this weeks Journal 52 and AJC prompts I have chosen the same quote.

Here's a look at my page -  Journal 52's prompt is Somewhere a Simple Place, and I have used a scribbled Gelato Background with stamping, Paper and drawing to represent that place, which for me is sitting outside with a coffee in hand watching and feeding the birds that frequent our garden and enjoying all that nature has to offer.

AJC has numerous prompts from colors, to words, to photos to use as inpsiration.  This week I used two colors from their Color Sparks and the Word Soothe.  The exact place I have depicted above is somewhere that for me soothes the soul.  For my Page I have used an A3 piece of watercolor paper with Black and White Gesso, Stencils and Spray Inks.

I have then scanned this background into my pc and added digital elements to achieve my finished page.  I really love how this has turned out just looking at it for me has a soothing effect!

Thanks for stopping by!

Craving for Color - It Makes Me Happy!

Hi Everyone, yesterday was a sad day, as we bid farewell to our foster son Alex who has been part of our family for the past year and a bit.  So after some writing in my journal I decided to hide away and play in my craft room.

I had recently purchased some black gesso and black was how I was feeling.  So after initially playing and completely messing up what I was doing by smearing it all with black, I went again with another A3 size piece of water paper and with a credit card I started by smearing on and smoothing out some black all over.

I then took some stencils, some water, white Gesso, Dylusions Ink, Yellow Paint on a Sponge Roller, and my Gelatos and went to town.  Playing with color makes me happy the most.

Here is my end result which I will sit on for a while before using it as a background for a piece of art.  .

I love creating and using my own background papers for my cards and ATC's and. normally I would just cut up my larger pieces to a useable size, however the stencil design was rather large so I decided to scan this piece into my computer.  My scanner is only A4 in size so the outer parts of my design didn't make the scanned piece.  I then boosted the colors slightly in my photo editing software. The scan of my background now looked like this - A4 in size.

Using my scanned background I created a quick digital journal page inline with Art Journal Caravan 2014, the Main Prompt for this is Where we Meet Nature as our Muse.

I used some digital elements from the AJC Jan14 Collection as well as taking two butterflies (birdwings) from photos I took at Mt Tamborine in December to add to this.

Nature and Color really are my two main inspirations for my art.  So where did my muse take me? .......

Next I shrunk the design to print as a card front size (4 to a page) and printed on my ink jet printer as my laser is out of ink. 

2 different looks are achievable with a black base card simply by choosing whether to leave a white border or not.

It's perfect for some Simple, Colourful and Flat Cards to send off with my ATC Swaps and a perfect background to team up with the Donna Downey Empowered Words or Art and Possibility Sentiment and Quote Stamps from Unity.

I hope this qualifies to link up with the Unity Friday Friends with Flair as I have missed playing along for quiet some time.

Day 2 - Five Days of Flashbacks

Welcome back to Day 2 of Five Days of Flashbacks showcasing my crafting throughout 2013.

In March I used up some of my Gelli Prints that I had been madly printing throughout February to make ATC's playing along with the Postage Stamp-Athon early in the month and an Art-Athon over the St Patricks Day Weekend.at ATC's for All.

It would appear March was the month for ATC Making.  This one was using some of my new Australian Animal Stamps from Darkroom Door.

Cards were more in favor in April and I kick started the month with a fun male oriented card for the sketch at Cards in Envy

I used a canvas backwards to create a fun shadow box with my French Country Papers from Graphic 45 for my rooster mad sister whilst playing along with the Altered Pages Challenge.

I hopped as part of the team for the Robin's Nest with my Daisy Days Card.

  

In May I was back to making lots of ATC's participating in a number of ATC Swaps including one called Down by the Sea and a Bee themed one!

I made a Shoe themed banner for the Shoe Challenge at Altered Pages.

And I had a go at carving my own stamps while at a Class at Time to Create and over on the Design Memory Craft Blog I learned a great technique for using Vellum with Gelatos.  This had me almost falling back in love with Vellum.

These flashbacks certainly confirm that my style varies a lot doesn't it?  Thanks so much for stopping by today.

If you would like to see more of my assortment of art throughout 2013, pop back tomorrow for Day 3 of my Five Days of Flashbacks where I will be showcasing some of my work from June, July and August.

Painting Faces rather than Going Places

Hi Everyone!  I hope you have all had a great weekend!  We've had another stormy few days here so the best place to be in home inside safe and dry.  Nothing quite like the hail storms of last Sunday here, however other areas have had some heavy and huge downpours of hail.

So it was a quiet weekend here, as A was on respite and Rod and I took the opportunity to do pretty much nothing - which translates to I had time in my craft room.  I was admiring all the wonderul art dolls over on ATC's for all, so decided to give these a go which also enabled me to practice my face drawing and painting skills.  I used a mix of Gelatos, Watercolor Pencils, Big Brush Markers, Distress Stains, White Gel Pen and Collage to create them.

Here's a couple I made ..........but first let me warn you they are addictive.

These ones are the first of these types of art dolls I have ever made, you may notice that there are the Zodiac Symbols on them for Taurus, Aries and Gemini as I was going to make them for a Swap over at AFA, the colors of the dolls clothing are the lucky colors for those symbols too.  Then I thought I would make them more goddess like.

So I made goddesses for Pieces, Aries, Taurus and Gemini.

These were such fun and a great way to pass a few hours playing with my paints and scraps, which got me thinking what other types I could make.

So more faces will lead to other places.  For a full look at just what doll this face belongs to you will have to check over on the Altered Pages Blog on Wednesday for my DT Post where all will be revealed.

Swapping Fun on a Sunday!

Hi Everyone!  I hope you have all had a wonderful weekend.  I've had a leisurely and entertaining weekend. On Friday Rod brought a new Samsung Smart TV which he has been wanting for some time (the new part that is and yes it's very smart indeed and surprisingly user friendly too) and as my current computer is about to die, I brought myself a new laptop on Saturday. Needless to say we have had a lot of new learning with trying to figure out how to use all the functions on both devices.  After seeing what the TV can do, I am almost thinking I probably didn't need a new laptop lol.....

Today after some grocery shopping I was able to finalize a couple more swaps I had recently signed up for over at ATC's for All, so thought I'd share these with you all today.

The first swap is a Botanical Collage swap which was inspired by a 

recent article in Paper Cloth Scissors Magazine.  

And the second swap was a simple 'Stamp and Color' Style 

Swap for Christmas using Christmas Stamps of Course.

The third swap is a Whimsical Bird Tip In Page Swap.  The background for each of these is a Gelli Print with added stamping and/or stencilling as well as my doodled birds.

These tip in pages are quite fitting for my week, given our recent bird invasion.  This morning we awoke to the raucous of 35 White Cockatoos, half a dozen Galahs, four ducks, and a handful of pigeons taking a page from the King Parrots book all lined up on the edge of the outdoor area looking for food (right outside our bedroom window).  Felix and BB (our two cats) were most disgusted, given they were inside and couldn't join the fun.  

I do so love where we live.  Thanks for stopping by!